Applejack Is An Interdimensional Alien

“Earth,” Twilight read aloud to herself. “The substance of the land’s surface; soil. Earth ponies get their name from this after the legendary alicorn Gaia the Great shifted their name three millennium ago from the name ‘horse’. Hmmm…”

“Whatcha reading there, Twilight?” Spike asked curiously as he made his way into the main room of her castle. “Something important from Princess Celestia?”

“Yes, I am. She wants me to find out where the name ‘Earth’ comes from, and try to find out when the word was used as a place instead of as a substitute for soil or in the name earth ponies.”

“That sounds interesting. Find anything yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m still reading.” With that, she cleared her throat, continuing a bit louder so he could listen, “Earth is also a place referenced by Gaia as a mirrored version of Equus, a separate world without magic. See ‘Gaia’ for more information… Spike, can you-”

“On it,” he answered, already heading up to get her books on the pony. A few minutes later, she was opening up to a chapter indicating ‘Travels of Gaia the Great’ under a section titled ‘Earth’ as its own area to read through.

“Earth is a world inhabited by many creatures,” Twilight read, “much like Equus, although one key difference being the development of a creature called a ‘homo sapien’, which ruled alongside horses (now called earth ponies). However, after a certain amount of time, the homo sapiens became more oppressive, and gradually began to take control of them, oftentimes for them to end up being used as slaves, and, occasionally, as food.” Twilight grimaced at that, able to hear Spike gasp as well, before continuing, “However, this was before Gaia the Great went to Earth to try to put a stop to it. However, when she went and saw the homo sapiens numbers, she chose instead to bring with her to Equus as many ponies as she could. Still yet, despite their treatment, many were unwilling to go, some having grown fond of their terrible masters. However, it’s estimated that she increased the population of Equus by some two million ponies, many adopting the name earth ponies as a reference to their home world, the name being officially changed over from horse once it was seen that they outnumbered native Equus horses five to one.”

“Wow… that’s crazy,” Spike commented simply. “I’m glad she saved them though. It sounds like an awful place.”

“It sounds terrible. I’ve never heard of anything like it…” Twilight looked back to the book to finish reading the section, continuing, “Being in an alternate universe to the one Equus inhabits, Earth was placed on a list of banned worlds because of what was witnessed by Gaia, to date the portal being opened only once since being placed on the list… that’s it? It doesn’t say when it was opened again or what happened?” Twilight flipped the page back and forth as though it would reveal more information, and was disappointed when it didn’t.

“Who would even want to go to a place like that?” Spike asked. “It sounds terrible. Just thinking about it makes me afraid, knowing that someplace like that exists.”

"But- but... it doesn't even say who opened it again or why!"

“AJ, get a hold of yourself,” Applejack whispered to herself as she sat in the Apple family home, Granny Smith sleeping in her rocking chair and Big Mac and Applebloom out bucking apples in her place. “Just a little sickness is all. Nopony’s gonna notice. It’ll be better in a few days. I’ll be- Ah’ll be better in a few days. Nopony even knows why you're sick. Just need to get used to havin’ magic is all. It’s been a little while. In a few days, it’ll all be better, and then you can get back to business.”

She sighed to herself, looking around to make sure nopony was listening, then taking a walk outside, her legs feeling just a little bit wobbly under her weight. It wasn’t too bad, but she didn’t like it and wished it would go away. She had things she needed to do.

She took a walk out to the apple trees where Big Mac was doing her job, not even bothering to look her way as he worked, forcing apples out of the branches and into the buckets on the ground with perfect precision.

“Mind if Ah take one there, Big Mac?” she asked politely.

“Enope,” he replied simply, before sending another wave of fruit raining down. She made sure to pick it up with her teeth, still a bit unaccustomed to using her hoof grip, seeing as it had been years since she’d done so.

“Mmmm, perfectly ripe and ready to harvest as always,” she commented as she bit down, enjoying the flavor. Equestrian food always tasted delicious, something about earth pony magic making them taste so much better than food from other places she’d been.

“How long will it take ya ta buck all these apples here without me?” she asked as she enjoyed the sweet, slightly crunchy fruit.

“Not long,” the stallion answered. “Applebloom an’ Ah can get it done in a couple of days.”

“Ah really hate to leave all of this on you two,” she told him, putting a sad look on her face and sorrow in her voice. “If Ah could be out here, Ah would, y’all know that.”

“Ain’t no trouble,” he told his sister. “Y’all jus’ stay restin’ up now. The two of us can take care of it.”

“Thank you, Big Mac. I don’t know what Ah’d do without you.”

“Must be some bug,” he told her before as he bucked the tree he was under again. “Sounds like yer losin’ yer accent, too.”

“Am Ah? Ah don’t think Ah sound any different… maybe Ah should see if Twi can cook somethin’ up for me…”

With that, she walked back off away from him, heading off to Ponyville again, silently cursing at herself for her foolishness. She couldn’t believe she let herself slip up like that, and so soon. She needed to keep a low profile, the only real thing of significance being that ‘prank’, which she did only to make sure she wasn’t being too inconspicuous. However, letting her accent slip up like that was not what she should’ve been doing. Having that happen would get her found out rather quickly. And then…

“Just a little slip-up. I’m lucky my legs started acting weird at the right time, otherwise, there’d be no way to explain that… Just need to keep a low profile and then... get Celestia alone and make her pay. Oh, she’ll pay. I’ll make her suffer for what she did to me. And then after that, everything will be perfect. Just need to stay low until then…”